In counseling individuals and consulting with organizations over twenty-five years, Richard Chang, CEO of Richard Chang Associates, Inc., a diversified performance improvement consulting, training, and publishing firm, has learned that both successful, satisfied people and exceptional business enterprises derive their energy and initiative from a single source: passion.

In The Passion Plan Model™, Dr. Chang presents seven simple steps to discovering the things you really care about, deciding where you want them to take you, and developing a plan to get you there. When followed by individuals, this plan leads to greater personal and professional fulfillment. When followed by organizations, it provides direction and improves performance at all levels.

A Unique Reserve of Personal Energy and Ability

When you act from passion, when it is a presence in your life, you enjoy a heightened sense of experience. You become an active participant in life rather than a passive observer. You perform better by others' estimations and become happier on your own. You surprise even yourself when you realize all that you have accomplished.

You have probably had this experience at some point in your life. Think back to a time when you lost yourself completely in an activity, perhaps when taking a class, preparing a meal, reading a book, seeing a film, or playing a sport. When athletes have this experience they claim to be "in the zone."

By keeping the level of passion in your life high you also keep your energy level and quality of experience high. Passion not only gives you a boost, it helps you challenge your limitations. Under its influence, you can do things that reality dictates you should not.

A Driving Force in Organizations

Passion has the same effect in business. Each organization has a human element—a heart. It only exists if there are people to run it and people to purchase its goods and services.

Both employees and customers have feelings that compel them to act the way they do. Employees do not check their personalities at the door and become robots. Their performance is predicated on their feelings toward their work. Customers do not buy just anything. They make their decisions based on emotional responses to products and the organizations that provide them. Even leaders—from the titans of industry to the owners of the mom-and-pop shops of the world—are subject to emotions. Though they may not always pay attention to their emotions, they have them none the less. And, in some way their feelings have a direct impact on the spirit and success of the organizations they lead.

When organizations pay attention to the forces that truly motivate them they tap into a hidden power reserve. By proudly proclaiming their passions and pursuing them with gusto, organizations accomplish things their competitors only dream of. They attract and retain superior employees, wow customers with superior products and services, and have fun doing what they do.

Integrating and Igniting Passion in Your Workplace

Each and every person involved in an organization has the potential to strengthen and improve it. By expressing and sharing your passion—integrating it in meaningful ways into the workplace—you can influence leaders, customers, and associates in ways that contribute to the growth of passion across the organization and to greater overall success.